I’m working out of Verbier, Switzerland, during February and March this year. No sympathy expected. Hopefully, the miracle of broadband will make it possible for me to work a full day and enjoy the slopes too!

Last week was my first here, and a bit of a holiday – I had 12 boisterous guys sharing the chalet and things got a little rowdy. Photos are, alas, NSFW. Not safe for pretty much anything, actually, other than sending us all tumbling from our respective slender grasps on respectability. ‘Nuff said.

Anyhow, the week finished with the most amazing day snowboarding I’ve ever been lucky enough to enjoy. Four of us and a guide went exploring off the back of Mont Fort, which is the highest peak you can get to without hiking, and did some back country touring. I’ve never experienced anything like it. Fields of virgin powder, steep climbs up snow staircases that seem to spell instant terminal velocity for anyone who places a foot wrong, nerve-wracking traverses.

We survived, it was glorious, and of course the more we retold the stories to the rest of the group, the better it all seemed. There’s a sign in one of the pubs here that says, very wisely, “The older I get the better I was”.

Today of course all of that cock-sure confidence went out the window after a huge overnight dump and wind that concentrated the snow into nice deep drifts. I couldn’t tell my arse from my elbow, could barely keep the nose of the board on top of the powder, crashed into walls of snow that were totally not there a second before (they jumped out at me, I swear) and ended up falling into a tree-well and landing on a series of strategically placed rocks.

I’m sure the rocks are not regretting the encounter, but I am this evening!

Anyhow, tomorrow morning am lined up for another lesson and am hoping that a little more caution, along with my trusty old ass-guards (“does this make my bum look fat?”) will make for a better day.
More to come.

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20 Responses to “Snowboard heaven & hell”

Hope you enjoy your stay as much as possible, but take care of yourself, snow walls can be quite hard to face.
Greets from Fribourg, 120 km from Verbier, but now snow at all 🙁
BTW, congrats for the great decision on proprietary drivers, I’ll stay with the Fawn 🙂
Myriam

You snowboard? Urgh… I’m trying to find free weekends to wreck my snowboard, and you get whole 2 months? This just isn’t fair! 🙂 Well, anyway, may you forever be rewarded with a lifetime of powder days!

Hey Mark. Don’t feel bad about yer talent in the powder. As a two-planker, one of the few pleasures I get these days on the mountain is watching knuckledraggers get caught in the powder. Snowboarders may be cooler than skiers, but they sure can’t handle deep, fresh powder! Just the nature of the device.

Hey Mark! I lived in Lausanne for a bit, and I will admit to meeting a few of those almost ninja like snow barriers. After one particularly comical faceplant, my mate and I looked for an hour in the snow for “whatever it was” that hit me, and nothing could be found. My mate came up either I destroyed whatever is it was, or it was a Sasquatch on holiday and ran off into the wilderness. Eitherway, it is still a mystery.

Good luck with everything and I look forward to more stories. If you get sick of the Swiss, come on down to Cape Town, weather is perfect!

Very cool! I just came back from a weeks vacation and I must say that after a slow start to the winter, the East Coast of the US is now skiing and riding heaven. I got a chance to hit the slopes here in the Northeast and the powder was f**king awesome! I’m pumped because the weatherman says we’re gonna’ get hammered again this Friday (today is Wednesday…and yes I’m going to the local slopes this evening too….I love living in snow country). This weekend should be fantastic! We get dumped on Friday and then plunge into the powder Saturday and Sunday….whee!

Hi Mark, I snowboard a lot, and contrary to what is being said in the comments boards are better than skis in powder and clag, you just need a big one. I ride a Burton supermodel which is a 181, and it just floats over this stuff, I have seen very good Swiss skiers struggle in powder, and I am swishing effortlessly on the top of it. The trick is that, sadly, length really is the answer….

Back of the Mount Fort is good, have you tried les Creblets yet, or the Vallon d’Arbi? Nice descents, shame that in general the snow is not better this year, but Verbier beats the low lying ones. (I am going to try Zermatt and Chamonix at Easter which should have some nice spring precipitation. Nice piles of lukewarm sugar for the board.)